Process and apparatus for separating mixed gases.



No. 820,283. PATENTED MAY 8, 190a 0. CLAMOND. PROCESS AND APPARATUS (FOR SBPARATING MIXED GASES.

APILIOATI'GE FILED AUG. 91, 1905.

241 Ja/iZa/.

Qitoznugd/ witnesses UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES (.ILAMUND, ()F PARIS, FRANCE.

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING MIXED GASES- To a, whom if (My concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES CLAMoND, a citizen of the Republic of France, and a resident of Paris, in the Republic of F rancc, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Methods of and Apparatus for Separating Mixed Gases, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has reference to a method of and apparatus for separating from each other mixed gases of different specific gravities, and while the invention is applicable. to the separation of all sorts of mixed gases of different specific gravities I have particularly in view the separation of oxygen from the nitrogen of atmospheric air, this being at the present state of the art the most profitable use of my invention from an industrial oint of view.

The invention is, however, also important in its application to other gas mixtures, such as the mixture of hydrogen and carbonic acid in water-gas, 8:0.

I have discovered that if a mixture of two gases of different specific ravities is caused to flow through a pipe an if the flow of gas is periodically arrested in front the two. gases become more or less separated in the pipe or channel to which they are confined. Upon this discovery my invention is based, and in the accompanying drawings, which form .a part of this specification, I have illustrated certain apparatus which I have used in the practice of the invention, and particularly in the separation of the two gases which constitute atmospheric airnamely, nitrogen and oxygen.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents diagrammatically an arrangement explanatory of the conditions under which mixed gases will not separate. Fig. 2 represents a longitudinal section, partly in elevation, of a simple apparatus for carrying out my process. Figs. 3 and 4 illustrate the phenomena of gas separation discoverable by means of the apparatus shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section of a more hi hly organized apparatus for separating mixe gases. Fig. 6 illustrates.

a longitudinal section of a modified apparatus for separating gases, and Figs. 7 and 8 are details thereof.

Like letters of reference indicate like parts throughout the drawings.

Specification of Letters. Patent.

Annlication filed August 31, 1905. Serial No. 276,626.

Patented May 8, 1906.

Referring to Fig.1, there is indicated a pipe A, into which two smaller pipes A A may be supposed to discharge oxygen and nitrogen in the proportion in which these gasesoccur in atl'nospheric air, as indicated by the arrows. These two gases will mix within the pipe A, and if the pipe is long enough the mixture will be perfect, and at the open end ll of the pipe there will be received atmospheric air. From this it follows that when a gas mixture flows continuously through a pipe or other passage no separation of the gases occurs. If, however, the free opening B of the pipe A is suddenly ('-lose.d,'.l conceive that the nitrogen and oxy-.

gen which had been mixed within the pipe will under the momentum which they have acquired tend to eontinue to move in the direction toward the closed opening, and the oxygen being the heavier of the two gases will move farther than the nitrogen, so that at some point or points of the pipe A there will be an excess of oxygen and at another point or points of the pipe A there will be an excess of nitrogen. This was my theoretical conception of my present invention, and I have verified the same by means of an apparatus constructed like that shown. in Fig. 2. In this apparatus 0 represents a chamber into which air is compressed and maintained at a practically uniform pressure by any well-known or improved means. From the chamber C leads a pipe I), which near its free open end has a rotary valve E, driven .by a

belt applied to a pulley F or in any other de-" sirable manner. flow of the gas mixture through the pipe D is periodically arrested in front, and the separation of the two gases in the manner hereinbefore described takes place. The reality of this separation is demonstrated by the contrivances shown in Fig. 2. G is a, pipe, communicating with the pipe I) at some point H between the chamber C and the rotary valve E, and in this pipe G there is also a rotary valve E, driven synchronously with the valve E; but the port of the valve E is angularly displaced with reference to the port of the valve E. The exit of the pipe G is controlled by a throttle-valve I. By the use of this apparatus I have found that for By this arrangement the a given speed of rotation of these valves, and a given set of the throttle I the air issuing at the open end of G will have an excess of oxygen or an excess of nitrogen, according to the position of the tap II. When any of the constants above enumerated is changed, the tap H will generally have to be shifted on the pipe D in order to obtain the maximum excess of oxygen or of nitrogen, as the case may be.

By using different lengths of pipe D and by shifting the tap H along that pipe to different positions I have found the results indicated diagrammatically in Figs. 3 and 4. I have found the distribution of separated gases in the pipe D to be as indicated by the curves in Figs. 3 and 4, in which K K K L L are'the ordinates. These curves show that for the shorter pipe (shown in Fig. 3) there are two maxima and one minimum, while in the case of the longer pipe (shown in Fig. 4) there are three maxima and two minima. The points of maxima indicate in this case the positions where the separated mixture is richest in oxygen, while the points of minima indicate the positions where the mixture is richest in nitrogen. Consequently if the tap H is placed to either of the positions K K K the gas discharged at the opening of the pipe G will be found to have the maximum obtainable excess of oxygen, while when the tap H is located at either of the points L L the gas obtained at the exit of pipe G will be found to have the greatest obtainable excess of nitrogen. When the tube D is rather short, only one point of maximum of oxygen is established.

'It will be seen from the foregoing that by periodically arresting the continuous flow of two mixed ases of different specific gravity in a pipe the two gases become separated more or less in the pipe in a regular wave form, and I have found that the length of the wave is dependent upon the pressure maintained in the chamber and upon the speed of revolution of the valves E E.

As examples of the practical use of my invention, I may state that when operating on atmospheric air I have used a pressure equal to a column of water of forty centimeters, The inner diameter of the pipe E, which I ordinarily used, was one centimeter, and the speed of rotation of the valves was seventeen per second, so that the valves were opened and closed thirty-four times er second, and these valves had an angu ar displacement with reference to each-other of 7 about ninety degrees, while the throttlevalve I was wide open. When with this general arrangement the pipe D was made orty centimeters long, I found two maxima of oxygen at K and K and one maximum of nitrogen at L, as indicated in Fig. 3. The maxima of oxygen were located each about six centimeters from the corresponding end of the pipe, while the maximum of nitrogen was midway between the two maxima of oxygen. W'hen the pipe D was made seventy centimeters long, I obtained three maxima of oxygen and two maxima of ni trogen distributed along the pipe in the manner indicated in Fig. 4, the terminal maxima K and K being again each about six centimeters from the corresponding end of the pipe, while the intermediate maximum of oxygen was midway between the two terminal maxima. The maxima of nitrogenL L were located each midway between two suc ceeding maxima of oxygen.

I have above indicated my conception of the cause of the separation of the gases under the circumstances described and I have stated how and in what manner I have obtained what seems to be a physical demonstration of the correctness of my conception; but my invention is not dependent upon the correctness of my theoretical views, .since further investigations may show that my any desired manner without in any way affecting the result.

From the above it will be clear that the arrangement shown in Fig. 2 is an apparatus of the simplest construction for practicing my process.

A more highly-organized apparatus is delineated in Fig. 5. In this arrangement the pipe D is supposed to be of such length that for the pressure maintained there are formed in the same two points of maximum for the heavier gas (oxygen) and one point of maximum for the lighter gas, (nitrogen) The points of maxima for oxygen are ta ped at H H bythe discharge-pipe G, whicli, as in Fig. 2, has in its passage the rotary valve E and the throttle-valve I, while the oint of maximum for nitrogen is tapped at by the pipe G, which is also provided with a rotary valve E and a throttle-valve I.

A modified ap aratus for separating mixed gases is indicated in Figs. 6, 7, and 8. Upon a shaft 1), rotated by power a plied to the pulley F, is keyed a metal dis a, which is separately shown in Fig. 7. This disk has four segmental slots .e e e e, arranged ninety degrees apart from each other, and four other slots f f f f, arranged concentricall within the first series, but so as to brea joint with the same-that iscto say, each fort y-five d egrecs displaced with reference to the slots of the first series. (in each side of this disk a'is arranged another disk 4 and d, respectively, one on the left and the other on the right hand side, and these disks are free from the shaft 1) and are held with gentle pressure against the disk a in any way or manner. These stationary disks (1 d are perlorated, as indicated in Fig. 8 that is to say, they have also four slots 0 e e c and four slots f ff f but the e and thefslotsare not angularlydisplaced with reference to each other, but form pairs on the same radius, so that when the disk (1- is rotated between the two disks (7 (1 there will be free periodic communication petween the 0 slots of the disks d, a, and d, and while such communication is established there will be no communication between the f slots of the three disks; but after the communication between the 0 slots has been interru ited the communicationbetween the f slots oithe three disks will be momentarily established.

C is an annular chamber, in which a constant air-pressure is maintained in any desirable manner, and from this chamber there issue Your pipes D D D D, only two of which are visible in the drawings, and these pipes are curved toward the disk (1, as indicated,

and are titted with their inner ends into the segmental slots 0 of the stationary disk (I, or these ends of" the pipes are otherwise secured in position to the disk d, so as to establish a fixed communieation between the chamber C and the slots e, and for this pur ose the inner ends of the pipes D may be slightly flattened and curved to the shape of the segmental slots. On the right-hand side of the stationary disk d there are two concentric annular chambers and 7c, the chamber is being in communication with the 0 slots in disk d by short pipes 0, while the annular chamber is in communication with the fslots of the disk (1 by short pipes Z.

It will be seen from this description that if the disk a is rotated there will be four interruptions of the passages from the chamber 0 into the chamber and out by a pipe 10 for each revolution of the disk, and if an is maintained under constant pressure in the chamber C there will be four puffs of air issuing at the pipe 1) for each revolution of the disk. Now the pipes D are made of such length that the point of maximum of oxygen in the samewill be at the bend of each pipe, and each pipe is tapped at that oint, as indicated by the letter H, by t e oxygen-discharge pipes G, which lead to and communicate with the f slots in the disk d. With this construction it is evident that air con taining an excess of oxygen will ass from each pipe D at the point H throug the i e G and through the slots f in the three is s whenever these slots are in communication into the annular chamber j, and from there by the continuation of pipe (i past the throttle .l to any place wherethe oxygen may be used or stored. The air issuing by the pipe will have an excess oi nitrogen and may be allowed to escape or may be utilized, if so desired.

It will be evident from the foregoing description that instead of rotary valves, as shown in Figs. 2 and 5, or a system of perforated disks, as shown in Fig. 6, any other construction that will cause a periodic stoppage of the free current of mixed gases may be employed for practicing my process. Thus, for instance, instead of valves or disks which are rotated by an external power an arrangement of siren disks automatically actuated by the air-pressure may be used, or any other eflective means for producing the same result may be employed. It is also evident that the air with an excess of oxygen obtained by this process may be further subjected to the same process one or more times for obtaining air with a still higher percentage of oxygen.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The process of separating from each other the constituents or mixed gases, which consists in causing the mixture to flow through a conduit and periodically arresting the flow of the mixture, substantially as described.

2. The process of separating from each other and separately discharging the con stituents of mixed gases which consists in causing the mixture to flow through a conduit, periodically arresting the flow of the mixture whereby the separation within the conduit is produced, and separately withdrawing each or an of the constituents from the point or pomts of accumulation in the conduit, substantially as described.

3. The process of separating and separately dischar 'ng the constituents of a gas mixture, which consists in causing the mixture to flow through a conduit, periodically arresting the flow of the gas mixture whereby each gas separately accumulates at a different point or points of the conduit, and periodically withdrawin each or any of the constituent gases from t 1e point or points of maximum accumulation, substantially as described.

4. An apparatus for separating the con stituents of a gas mixture, consisting of a conduit, means for passing through the same a gas mixture, and means for periodically arresting the flow of gas through the conduit, substantially as described.

5. An apparatus for separating and separately discharging the constituents of a gas mixture, consistingof a conduit, means for passing through the same a gas mixture, name to this specification in the presence of means for periodlcally arrestingthe flow of two subscribing Witnesses.

the mixture through the condult and means for periodicall tappin the conduit at one or CHARLES CLAMOND' 5 more points or the ischar e 0fthe sepa- Witnesses:

rated gases, substantlall as escribed. JAMES LYON BOWLEY,

In testimony whereo I have signed my HANSON O. Come. 

